Sunday, April 28, 2024

April 28th, 1964

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

The Beatles filmed their television special "Around The Beatles" at Wembley Studios in England.

In one of the skits, they performed Act V, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Nights Dream" with John Lennon playing the female role of Thisbe, Paul McCartney performing as Pyramus, George Harrison as Moonshine and Ringo as Lion. Paul later named his cat Thisbe. 


You can watch the entire special here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHZ_6YKG0pA

Songs performed during the special include “Twist And Shout,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” “Long Tall Sally,” a medley of “Love Me Do,” “Please Please Me,” “From Me To You,” “She Loves You” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Can’t Buy Me Love” and their closer, “Shout.”

Saturday, April 27, 2024

THE SATURDAY SURVEY

 

Don't let them tell you that Beatlemania is dead ...

They've got the #1 Song in the Country again ("Can't Buy Me Love," topping the chart for its fourth week), "Do You Want To Know A Secret" at #3, "Twist And Shout" at #9, "Love Me Do" at #31 (up from #47), "She Loves  You" at #33, "All My Loving" at #36 and "Thank You Girl," finally cracking the Top 40 at #40.  That's SEVEN songs in The Top 40 alone.

But the list doesn't stop there ...

"I Want To Hold Your Hand" is still hanging on at #44 in its 16th week on the chart, "Please Please Me" sits at #53 and "P.S. I Love You," the flipside of "Love Me Do," is new on the chart at #91, giving them three more tracks in The Top 100, for a total of ten ... which is 10% of the entire chart!  (By the way, "Roll Over Beethoven" falls out of The Top 100 to #108 this week, so it still has chart representation in "The Next Ten.")

And that doesn't even take into account the REST of the British Invasion acts on the list this week.

The Dave Clark Five now have FOUR Top 100 Hits of their own ...

"Bits And Pieces" moves up to #4, "Glad All Over" slips out of The Top 10 to #11, "Do You Love Me" is the week's highest premiering record at #66 and "I Knew It All The Time" is back on the chart at #96.

The Searchers have three Top 100 Hits as well ... "Needles And Pins" is still hanging on at #19, "Ain't That Just Like" sits at #72 and "Sugar And Spice" creeps up to #86.

Landing at places in between, we find "Little Children" by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas breaking into The Top 40 at #38 (up from #61), "Stay Awhile" by Dusty Springfield holding on at #43 and "Hippy Hippy Shake" by The Swinging Blue Jeans at #60.  (Some count The Bachelors as part of The British Invasion, but they're actually from Ireland ... still, they've got the #46 record, "Diane," their first US chart hit.)  Even without it, British acts now account for 20% of the entire US chart.

On the upside, fourteen American acts are represented in The Top 20 this week ... so the war's not over yet!  These include Louis Armstrong, The Serendipity Singers, Terry Stafford, Mary Wells, The Four Seasons, Jan and Dean, Robert Maxwell, Danny Williams, Betty Everett, Lesley Gore, Roy Orbison, The Kingsmen, Marvin Gaye and Pete Drake, whose song I really like, so we'll feature that one today!

 


60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

4/27/64 – A photo of President Johnson picking up his pet beagles by their ears sends a wave of outrage to animal lovers across the country.  After hearing the dogs — named "Him" and "Her" — yelp, a reporter asked, "Why did you do that?" and Johnson explained that it was to make them bark, adding, "And if you've ever followed dogs, you like to hear them yelp."

(The whole country yelped after they saw these pictures!!!)



Also on 4/27, the last original episode of “The Danny Thomas Show” airs on ABC-TV, bringing an end to the 11-year-old series that first premiered as “Make Room For Daddy.”

Danny’s daughter on the show was portrayed by Angela Cartwright, who just may have been my first major crush as a ten year old!  (lol)  kk


That's OK ...

Angela landed on her feet in "Lost In Space" shortly thereafter.


 

Friday, April 26, 2024

The Friday Flash

Chuck Buell tells us ...

Today, April 26, is NATIONAL PRETZEL DAY!


An important day for sure as the Pretzel is one of America’s very favorite snacks. If you’re an Average American, you probably eat almost two pounds of pretzels every year!

Forgotten Hitters who live in Pennsylvania should be especially proud of this day.  Pennsylvania is the center of American pretzel production for both hard and soft pretzels, providing all of us with 80% of the nation’s pretzels!

So, it’s not surprising that Pennsylvanians eat more pretzels than anybody else in any other state in the U.S.  For instance, it is said the average resident of Philadelphia alone enjoys over ten pounds of pretzels per year!

And it’s equally not surprising that National Pretzel Day was created by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell when, in 2003, he declared April 26th “National Pretzel Day” to acknowledge the importance of the pretzel to the state’s history and economy.

So, Babe, come wrap your warm Pretzel arms around me, sit back with me and take a look at my Very Special National “Twisted” Pretzel Day CB Minute Medley Video! 


CB ( which stands for “Curley-Twisted-Pretzel Boy!” )

TWO POUNDS OF PRETZELS PER YEAR?!?!?

SHEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIT ...

I ate two pounds of pretzels last night!!!  (kk)


60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

4/26/64 – The Boston Celtics beat The San Francisco Warriors by a score of 105–99, to win the NBA Championship, four games to one. The victory marked the Celtics' sixth consecutive title.